Did anybody already used the combat cards (Sword of Stalingrad) in other official scenario's? What's your experience? Which scenario's would you recommend for using when playing with combat cards? Is there already a list of suggestions?

Wow, that's asking for some poor fellow to go crazy! There are currently 1,609 Scenarios From the Front!

It's not a bad idea, though, for someone to put together a list of scenarios where you could use the Urban Combat Cards. Someone could also start compiling a list where players can use the Winter Combat Cards!

That's indeed a great idea! A list for both combat decks based on play-experiences

While play experience would be good, someone could simply create a list that contains the appropriate terrain for each Combat Deck. That way players who want to play with the deck and report to us know which battles to try.

I suspect that the cards won't overbalance scenarios...because both sides can get them and none of the cards seem to be overly powerful. As long as the scenario has enough Building hexes (for the Urban Combat Deck) or is set in the snow (for the Winter Combat Deck), it should work.

I would guess that the Combat Deck would be appropriate for any scenario that had a larger than usual number of tiles containing man-made structures, especially if they're relatively close together and/or represent one town/city rather than many. (In other words, consider the scale of the scenario.)

I must disagree; that scenario is approximately on divisional scale; Winter Rules should give a huge disadvantage for German Panzers (all tanks move 2 hexes and battle)... not mentioning other camouflaged surprises (using the appropriate Combat Card) on the way to Moscow!

I see what you mean, but to me scale isn't something I care a great deal about in Memoir. Let me explain.

I need to hit my opponents infantry unit 4 times to gain a medal and how many men each of those figures represent on a scenario to scenario basis want change that. I still need 4 hits.

My tank unit can move 3 hexes and I don't care if those 3 hexes is 60 meters or 50 kilometers, what matters is what I can get into firing range.

Behind Enemy Lines can get my Infantry well over halfway across the board, and to me it doesn't matter if that was 4 street corners in Stalingrad or halfway across the Cotentin penninsula, it only matters where my opponents units are.

And in the Combat Deck when I play "House to House" it really doesn't matter if my units enter Pavlov's House from the north side and fire out the windows on the south side or if they enter Paris from the west side and attack an enemy on the east side of Paris as long as teh enemy is on the other side of that town hex and the card allows me to attack him.

So the scale to me doesn't matter, only the situation on the board in the current scenario.

And I think that is Memoir's strength. Teh rules are made in a way that makes it a fun game no matter the scale. For me at least.

But when you say scale matters to you, I understand what you mean and I won't hold that against you (At least not much. )

Yes, sometimes scale does matter for me, but I must admit, that it is one of Memoir's strength: you may create any scenario on any scale!

In Nach Moskau! the Germans would get a huge disadvantage in case in which not only Winter Cards, but Winter Rules would be used, as their tanks would be able to travel only 40 kilometers instead of 60 kilometers (in terms of 2-3 hexes )!

Yes, sometimes scale does matter for me, but I must admit, that it is one of Memoir's strength: you may create any scenario on any scale!

In Nach Moskau! the Germans would get a huge disadvantage in case in which not only Winter Cards, but Winter Rules would be used, as their tanks would be able to travel only 40 kilometers instead of 60 kilometers (in terms of 2-3 hexes )!

But of course, using only Winter Cards would be so much fun!

Yes, Winter Rules would be a German handicap because Blitz rules are in effect and Russians tanks already move max of 2 hexes, so they would see no reduction in movement ability whereas German tanks would reduce from max of 3 to max of 2.

But I thought the question was about the urban combat deck applying to official scenarios. In any case, either deck could be applied to Nach Moskau, as there is no need to use Winter Rules with Winter Combat deck.

I was hoping to find an answer to my question: What official scenarios use combat cards?

Unfortunately, no one answered it, so I'm having to look it up myself. These say "Combat rules are in effect."
#3 Sword of Stalingrad (OL),
#3 Rats in a Factory (OL),
#3 Pavlov, Hero of the Soviet Union,
but not the other scenario from #3 pack: Mamayev Kurgan.

Unfortunately, although the Urban combat deck is available on VASSAL, these are not - probably because it's still in print?

There seems to be a lot of Eastern Front scenarios in a campaign book, but they don't seem to want to use the Urban Combat cards.

So, I'm looking for urban-set scenarios that might do well with them - meaning has Factories and lots of Towns/Villages.
Card: Armor Factory gives (Allies only) one full tank figure on a factory.
Card: Rattenkrieg is a poor man's BELs - move from town to town, but can battle.

Red Barricades (Winter Board) is a good one w/factory and 10 medals.Battle of Warsaw: lots of towns but no factory. Should be Ok to take out the Allies-only cards for the Poles.
[Normandy] Capture of Falaise by jdrommel looks exciting w/10 medals.

For me, Urban combat cards are usable in every scenario with considerable amount of city hexes, even if they are singularily scattered all over and non-adjacent. Depending a bit on scale (not necessarily) - for instance, if one city hex represents a small town of course there can be some frantic street fighting.

For every such scenario not being Stalingrad (or Berlin, for instance) I take out of the deck both Rattenkriegs and Armor factory (they really don't make sense in other contexts) and use the Deck if I agree so with my opponent.

Winter deck is usable in almost every winter scenario, it's just a generic non-specialized field deck, and as Rasmussen already mentioned here, both players use those cards equally, usually in small amounts, and they really don't overbalance things.

I confirm that from very rich experience of playing almost everyday with my son who's quite young and who doesn't want to play almost any scenario without Urban or Winter deck, so I played with those cards tons of scenarios out of which many really shouldn't be played with them.

Especially in the BT format you can be sure that in such average amount of troops and space these cards won't fiddle with balance. Especially not more than the normal cards can (not to mention the dice)

Anyway, I would reccomend anybody experienced enough to feel free about using those two decks.

Red Barricades we played using both It was fun to have some things doubled there.

BEL card I feel a bit unbalancing in most of the normal situations, so I wouldn't blame anybody for taking the Infiltrators out of the deck, although we didn'd yet decide on that. I'd be grateful if somebody of you guys would comment on this...

I played High Stakes at Bruyères on Vassal, which uses Urban Combat cards. I was Allied Right-FG of this Overlord scenario from the Equipment Pack in a 4-on-4. It was fun but long!

I also played Axis in a one-on-one Overlord: Firefight in Neffe, with Winter cards, recently. I blew up the pic and printed out 14-pages to make my own battle map for quicker setup. The pic only has 13 medal spaces, so we missed one.

I rematched Battle of Warsaw this week with Urban cards, and it was good. The Poles played Sniper and got a kill from it; Street Fight may have given me a kill. I didn't take out that "Tractor Factory" card because it still counts as a Street Fight, and we didn't do it for "High Stakes...".

I played one side of Capture of Falaise (SFTF) with Urban cards, but the scenario wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be.

I played one side of Noville to Foy with Winter Combat cards (but no winter weather so tanks could still move 3) and it was OK. My trucks got an extra move due to Frozen Ground.

Red Barricades we played using both [decks] It was fun to have some things doubled there.

I'd also like to play Red Barricades with Urban cards. Red Barricades has the winter board but is October; is that Winter? I didn't really think about using both, until I read your post. Did you draw 1 from each deck at the start, instead of 2? I suppose the Germans might forego an Air Strike to draw an Urban card with a Recon.

I have ben playing Winter Wars FTF and using the winter cards, and I like the added options. I've been stung a copule of times with an "Out of Fuel" and "Out of Ammo" - nothing like them for hindering my carefully planned attack.

I have also contemplated using both Urban and Winter decks in a game - just haven't got around to a winter scenario with a bunch of buildings yet.

I think I'd play it with 4 extra cards - 2 from from each action deck, and maybe pull certain cards.

I haven't thoght too much around that yet.
Some interesting comments in thread on that though.

When I play regular sized scenarios with Combat cards(winter or Urban) I use a custom Command card deck with an EXTRA set of Recon-1 cards. This to get the Combat Cards more into play. It's fun. Some scenarios see lots of Combat cards in play and some see very few.

I have not tried using both Urban and Winter deck in the same scenario.

I just played Out of Kemi from the expansion pack with winter command cards. It made this somewhat tame and fast playing scenario a bit more interesting. In fact, of the 3 times I've played, this was the most exciting and lasted a bit longer. But, this may have been due to different tactics as Axis forces.

When I play regular sized scenarios with Combat cards(winter or Urban) I use a custom Command card deck with an EXTRA set of Recon-1 cards. This to get the Combat Cards more into play. It's fun. Some scenarios see lots of Combat cards in play and some see very few.

That sounds like a good idea! I was going over the rules for Breakthrough deck which has 4 upgraded cards and suggests adding them to normal scenarios. But so far, I haven't seen any scenarios that say to add BT Air Power (2d both sides), BT Barrage (stars hit), BT Medics (roll can be used on multiple units), and BT Dig-In (artillery too).

We've played 40 games with Winter Cards. Our latest:Suomussalmi variant w/Winter Cards. I used my 2 cards for Bitter Resistance (ignore flag) as both the Finns and the Russians.Relief of Peiper, Winter Roads version. Germans used Infiltrators to kill a lone-fig inf and exit.Rzhev Overlord variant w/Winter Cards. Double-Deck meant 12 Recons in deck (5 were played). Tank using Frozen Ground to move 4 took Russians by surprise.

We've now played a total of 14 games with Urban Combat Cards. We haven't removed any cards- they only count as Street Fight when you can't use their ability. Reinforcements, Infiltrators, Ambuscade and Out of Ammo can be powerful, but the others don't seem to pack the punch.

Nijmegen Bridges (14 buildings)- Variant. Infantry with Rafts first went into forest then used Rattenkrieg to go through the sewers with their boat!"Tissu est dans iode" (16 buildings)- Fortify blocked the Sudden Death exit hex.Mamayev Kurgan (14 buildings) - Variant. Not a Step Back kept infantry in position for Close Assault.Arnhem Bridge (9 towns)- Variant w/BT cards too. Infiltrators rolled 4 hits on 4 dice vs German infantry.

There's two versions of Red Barricades:
The Eastern Front version has Blitz/Axis Air Strikes;
The Air Pack version doesn't, (and no Air Rules) but Russian tanks still move 0-2.
I think I'll play the second with Urban Cards to simplify the use of Recon cards.

I'm hoping we'll be familiar enough with Urban Combat Cards to be part of the Vassal ladder match in June for Sword of Stalingrad.